Samsung's Denison shows email describing 'design crisis'

updated 07:45 pm EDT, Mon August 6, 2012

by MacNN Staff

Refers to Apple as 'heaven' while other phones are 'earth'

An email from Samsung managers alerting the company to a "design crisis" following the launch of the iPhone in 2007 is perhaps the strongest indication yet that Samsung, as Apple has contended in the current trial, began willfully copying Apple's design ethos -- and the evidence was ironically introduced by a Samsung executive. Justin Denison, the chief strategy officer for Samsung's US branch, showed off the internal memo that described the difference between the iPhone and then-current phones as "heaven and earth."

While Denison tried to characterize the memo as "hyperbole" that was typical for the company to use to "energize" its employees and intended to show off Samsung's competitiveness and pride, Apple lawyers pounced on the document over the numerous objections of the Samsung team, all of which were shot down by Judge Lucy Koh, who told Samsung that Denison's reference to the email "opened the door" for Apple's use of it, report AppleInsider.

The full quote from the email, likely translated from Korean, goes as follows: "All this time we've been paying all our attention to Nokia, and concentrated our efforts on things like Folder, Bar, Slide ... yet when our [product] is compared to the unexpected competitor Apple's iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth. It's a crisis of design." Samsung and other companies' smartphones prior to the iPhone tended to look completely different in form and functionality, though a handful of designers, including Samsung, were starting to experiment with more advanced designs.

When asked by Apple attorney William Lee if there was in his view a difference between competing "fairly and squarely" and copying another company's intellectual property, Denison said there was. On Friday, Denison was forced to acknowledge a number of reports from Samsung (some of which he created) that showed detailed, side-by-side comparisons of Samsung's Galaxy S and Apple's iPhone, along with presentations that had titles like "Beat Apple response strategy" and "recent Apple analysis project."

When asked if Denison could provide a similar "crisis in design" type document referring to anything Nokia produced, the Samsung exec admitted he couldn't. [viaAppleInsider]

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An email from Samsung managers alerting the company to a "design crisis" following the launch of the iPhone in 2007 is perhaps the strongest indication yet that Samsung, as Apple has contended in the current trial, began willfully copying Apple's design ethos -- and the evidence was ironically introduced by a Samsung executive. Justin Denison, the chief strategy officer for Samsung's US branch, showed off the internal memo that described the difference between the iPhone and then-current phones as "heaven and earth."

While Denison tried to characterize the memo as "hyperbole" that was typical for the company to use to "energize" its employees and intended to show off Samsung's competitiveness and pride, Apple lawyers pounced on the document over the numerous objections of the Samsung team, all of which were shot down by Judge Lucy Koh, who told Samsung that Denison's reference to the email "opened the door" for Apple's use of it, report AppleInsider.
The full quote from the email, likely translated from Korean, goes as follows: "All this time we've been paying all our attention to Nokia, and concentrated our efforts on things like Folder, Bar, Slide ... yet when our [product] is compared to the unexpected competitor Apple's iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth. It's a crisis of design." Samsung and other companies' smartphones prior to the iPhone tended to look completely different in form and functionality, though a handful of designers, including Samsung, were starting to experiment with more advanced designs.
When asked by Apple attorney William Lee if there was in his view a difference between competing "fairly and squarely" and copying another company's intellectual property, Denison said there was. On Friday, Denison was forced to acknowledge a number of reports from Samsung (some of which he created) that showed detailed, side-by-side comparisons of Samsung's Galaxy S and Apple's iPhone, along with presentations that had titles like "Beat Apple response strategy" and "recent Apple analysis project."
When asked if Denison could provide a similar "crisis in design" type document referring to anything Nokia produced, the Samsung exec admitted he couldn't. [viaAppleInsider]

Well if this implies some kind of guilt then color me and probably every other company out there guilty for having information on competitors and trying to rally employees. Even Jobs basically admitted his whole thing about Google being evil was manufactured to motivate his employees. To create a bad guy that was out to get them. I even sent a fake email to my employees looking like it was from one of our competitors calling our stuff crap. I did it to motivate them to "win".

I mean get real here. This stuff from Denison implies ZERO of anything: nothing but the norm in business.

"I think the Android differences were actually for show. I had a relationship with Steve. I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher. You don’t want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what’s possible and how to make the world better."

Read more at http://9to5google.com/2012/04/04/google-ceo-larry-page-says-steve-jobs-fury-over-android-was-just-to-rally-troops/#Q81pdTjLHXFg14zq.99

And looking back at things like Jobs' war video from the 80s making IBM out to be the enemy. Apple's disonformation machine and how Jobs et al. studied Nazi disinformation campaigns and tactics.

To actually believe a grown man thinks companies like Google are evil is absurd. Blackwater? Goodyear Tires with their killing locals and annexing land? Ok, now you're getting warm.

And why shouldn't we? I mean, Larry Page is well known to be a reliable and neutral source of information on everything Apple, with no conflict of interest whatsoever. After all, Google's motto is "Do no evil." And company mottos never lie.

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